Strategies of the Development of Entrepreneurship and SME

At the meantime, small enterprise share is still low in the country’s export. Their capitalfacilities and productivity level are rather low than in large enterprises (large and mediumenterprise data are 63% and 48.8%).In the sectoral structure of SME trade and service are the basic fields. Around 71 % ofsmall enterprises is service and trade ones and they covers 54.7% of employment inentrepreneurial sphere.The main direction of Georgian development is the poverty reduction and economicalgrowth, which could not be achieved without supporting the capacity building in the rural andurban areas of Georgia, without assisting emerging small and family owned businesses throughthe knowledge and skills transfer, through creation of cooperation network among the tenants,business incubators and other supporting organizations. In this concern, development of SMEsector is the main priority of country’s economical development. The most complicated statepolicy issue is the employment problem at the contemporary stage of the transitive period inGeorgia. Women who are more then half of the population and labor recourses appeared in theworst condition.To eliminate poverty and unemployment is one of the priorities in Georgia at this stageof the market economy. 54.5% (according to the official data of 2003) of the population wasbeyond edge of poverty. The women who are 53 per cent of the population are in a dreadfulsituation. Among officially registered unemployed people – 60 per cent are women. Also laborfeminist migration is fast increasing. Among those who left the country in search of a jobabroad (800.00) the number of women amounted to more than 40 per cent. 405.4.2. Legislation and steps of doing Business in GeorgiaRelevant institutional base has been created for SME development. Special Law on“Small Enterprise Support” as of 23 July 1999 determines the basic principles for SMEdevelopment and assistance.Main Governmental Policies and Legislation1. Law on “Small and Medium Enterprise Support” (23.07.1999)2. President decree (No. 16, 26.01.2000) on “Creation of Small Enterprise CoordinateCouncil”3. President decree (No. 134, 08.04.2000) on “Provision of Centre for Small EnterpriseDevelopment and Assistance”4. President decree (No. 309, 22.06.2002) on “SME State Support Program for 2002-2004in Georgia”Every business operating in Georgia must be registered. Georgia’s Law on Entrepreneursdefines the following types of legal entities:• General Partnership• Limited Partnership• Limited Liability Company• Joint Stock Company• CooperativeAccording to the Law on Entrepreneurs, all businesses (except individual entrepreneurs)must register with a court. To register an enterprise, the entrepreneur must complete thefollowing steps:• Compile and notarize the company’s founding documents2540 Nino Elizbarashvilli: Business Incubators in Georgia, National Study prepared for the ERENET Workshop held in2006 in Budapest.114